I agree that their resources should go to raids/content first. But you cannot seriously say that this wouldn't enhance immersion?

If we go by a list of things for them to do:
1. more content
2. better lootsystem in LFD (which they are fixing or have fixed already for future patch)
3. character models
4. weather/night+day changing + possible effects on vision

There are ofcourse many more things that should change or improve. But I don't think weather should be at the bottom of the list.

I would much rather they spent time and effort doing anything besides putting weather in capital cities. Its a waste of time and resources when these things are better spent on future content that we really need. New raids, quicker expansion release, new character models, new quests, these are the things we need blizz working on, not rain effects and puddles in orgrimmar.

Blizzard spends plenty of time on new raids, new quests and quicker content. They don't bother to address things like lack of continuity in weather between zones, night that isn't really night, and so on. These things add to immersion and are just as important as new character models. More so if you aren't particularly obsessed with wanting a new character model.

You know what I would love to see, equally on par with weather patterns?

Tidal influences on the oceans.

Seriously, they redid the water engine back in, Cata wasn't it? Yet, every single ocean is this perfectly placid and flat expanse of water that one would think there wasn't a moon, when in actuality, there are two moons!

If you look at alpha footage in Westfall and Stanglethorn from 2002 or so, the water had a tide effect that looked wonky as hell but kind of cool.

What I want is real clouds in every zone, like Uldum. Skyrim and Uldum showed me how much more immersive models of clouds hanging in the sky are, it's a passion of mine, I love drawing cartoon clouds because it reminds me of the mountains and I love how the tree line interacts with clouds.

But not only does it make the world feel more alive to see clouds over your head, it makes flying feel 10 times cooler when you are flying through the clouds. I love Uldum for that.

I don't even mind the original cloud box from vanilla, I would be fine with that still being there along with 3d models of clouds in every zone, it would make the world feel more alive to me. But an upgrade to the overall cloud sky box is also something the game could use, with higher resolution stars at night

These are the things I would force Blizzard to do if I had Mike Morhaime chained in a dungeon somewhere.

---------- Post added 2013-01-30 at 11:43 AM ----------

Originally Posted by Vaelorian

I agree that their resources should go to raids/content first. But you cannot seriously say that this wouldn't enhance immersion?

The need to point out what's more important between "content" and what others consider content is one of the most annoying things about the internet.
It's not a binary issue, it's not a choice between one or the other, it's just you getting on a soap box to announce to the world that you're not one of those superficial and shallow people (who are not "real gamers") that value visuals over game play.

The art team has nothing to do with programming or infrastructure.

---------- Post added 2013-01-30 at 11:47 AM ----------

It's like we're having a discussion over our favorite desserts and some a-hole comes in to tell us all to remember how important it us to brush our teeth and eat food other than our deserts as well. Well thank you for that, tiger. That's valuable feedback to the discussion alright.